Monthly Archives: October 2009

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Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.

* Some people have a pre-existing immunity to H1N1. Now THAT would be good to have! Warning: deep med-speak in this article [CDC]

* Hormel and Herdez Del Fuerte are going to combine to form VOLTRON MegaMex Foods. This venture is to market “Mexican foods in the United States”. Um, guys? You’re a little late. It’s called Fiesta. But I guess this might be a good thing overall to push more things into the mainstream. As long as they don’t “Hormel-ize” everything. I better not see no Molle with “real bacon flavor” at the grocery store. [FOOD BUSINESS NEWS]

* The US Military would like to point out that current research… “appears to show that many people can emerge from traumatic experiences with greater self-confidence, [and] a keener sense of compassion and appreciation for life, says Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, director of the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program.” OK. Let me paraphrase that: Didn’t die. Woo Hoo! Pass the beer. [US MILITARY HEALTH SYSTEM and a cross link on USA TODAY]

* Pepsi just lost 1.26 billion in a lawsuit… because they didn’t show up. As in ever. As in summary judgment. What the hell, right? It’s just money! [WALL STREET JOURNAL]

* A California jury just found KDNDFM radio station liable for causing a woman’s death in a stupid “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest they had back in 2007 when the Wii system was just coming out. This woman drank 7.5 litres of water trying to win a new this video game system for her three kids. The Wii video game system is now worth around $200. That’s messed up. And why is this only making British news? [DAILY MAIL]

* Good news, bad news. A US company has acquired BIMBO. For those of ya’ll that don’t know what BIMBO is, it’s pretty much a major Hostess / Sarah Lee bakery kind of thing in Mexico. Well, “net U.S. third-quarter sales more than tripled to $978 million when compared to the previous year’s third quarter.” Fine. I’m happy for you all. Really. Just DON’T MESS WITH MY BIMBUNELOS! They’re 100% sugar on a fried wagon wheel goodness! [FOOD BUSINESS NEWS]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent a nastygram to Procter & Gamble today, telling them that Vicks DayQuil Plus Vitamin C and Vicks Nyquil Plus Vitamin C are… “illegally marketed combinations of drug ingredients and a dietary ingredient…. single dosage form combinations of drug ingredients and dietary ingredients legally cannot be marketed because they have not been proven safe and effective, and… the agency previously determined that there are insufficient data to show that vitamin C is safe and effective in preventing or treating the common cold.”

This isn’t so much a current recall as it is a pending recall. I would bet that Procter & Gamble is going to yank these Vicks products off the shelves ASAP so as not to tick off the FDA. So if you like your DayQuil or Vicks pre mixed with Vitamin C, go buy them now. Or you can do it the hard way and just chase your next plain dose of Vicks with a giant glass of OJ.

The notice on the FDA site says “the reagents have been found to fail linearity at >200mg/dL that results in inaccurate glucose values above this range. Distributors and testing laboratories who have received the Pointe Scientific, Inc Liquid Glucose Hexokinase Reagent (G7517) which is being recalled should destroy remaining inventory.”

So there I was, going home for lunch today. I made myself a nice roast beef and horseradish sandwich on wheat, some Flamin’ Hot Cheetos with Tabasco sauce, and a freezing cold bottle of Evian water. As an indulgence, I grabbed one macadamia nut cookie from an unopened Sam’s cookie box I got a few weeks ago.

I had finished lunch watching some stuff on the Tivo, and was nomming on my cookie when I started to open the mail. First up – a letter from Sam’s.

Cookie bite number four was in progress when I read…

“Dear Sam’s Club Member: Today we were notified that Countryside Backing Co Inc in conjunction with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has initiated a Recall of cookies made with Macadamia Nuts because the nuts may be contaminated with Salmonella. Our records reflect you may have purchased one of more of the following: Assorted 24ct Cookies (choc chunk, oatmeal, mac nut) Item # 68503 UPC #: 0022193700000”

PTOO! PTOO! PTOO!

Figures.

Here’s the actual letter with more detail…

Sam's Cookie Recall

The bad thing is I took two of those cookie sets to a recent birthday party. Not funny.

It’s great and very commendable that Sam’s sent out this letter directly to its’ customers who made the actual purchase. Sam’s definitely stopped one possible infection. Well done ya’ll. But I still can’t find the official FDA notice about this tie-in with Sam’s.

So until the FDA notice comes out, take this letter as a basic guideline on the UPC codes. The items affected are Item # 68503 with UPC # 0022193700000, Item # 6850 with UPC # 0022193900000 and Item # 929830 with UPC # 0022201900000.

If you are a user of Facebook and get an email saying “your password has been reset” with a attachment to open, just delete the email. A new scam/trojan attack is making the rounds, and this one is specifically targeting users of Facebook.

Once the trojan is opened, it will go out over the internet and grab more viruses and malware to download to the infected PC. The article says there are “around 735,000 of the phony Facebook messages since Monday”, so this thing is only getting bigger.

Make sure to update your antivirus definitions this weekend, and it would be a good idea to set your antivirus application to run a full scan while you are out for Halloween.

In a recent set of HP ink I got for a company printer, a small flier was enclosed that advertised a link to a free and legal copy of Quickbooks.

The promotional special with HP is for a free copy of Quickbooks Simple Start Free Edition 2010. While not as full featured as the “Pro” version, it does “keep track of money coming in and going out, track income and expenses (for up to 20 customers), track sales, expenses & sales taxes, [generate] professional-looking invoices & estimates and [also has] 14 Financial, sales & tax reports.”

That’s not too bad. Especially for free. It might be worth it to keep on a memory stick and use to set up someone new to paperless accounting. Or even for use as a very basic home accounting system.

Before you read too far, this recall only concerns Texans. The rest o’ ya’ll can mosey on by now.

A new recall by the FDA says Pop’s Bakery is recalling all tortillas… “marked by the following number codes: 110609, 110509, 110409, 110309, 110209, 110109, 103109, 103009, 102909, 102809, 102709, 102609, 102509, 102409, 102309, 102209, 102109, 102009, 101909, 101809, 101709, 101609, 101509, 101409, 101309, 101209, 101109, 101009, 100909, 100809, 100709. These products may contain undeclared whey (milk). People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to whey (milk) run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products. Flour tortillas were distributed only within the state of Texas, specifically to the West Texas region. The product was distributed to restaurants and retail grocery stores via direct delivery.”

This is a great recall notice, but I think a list of restaurants would be nice to have. Not to cause a panic, but to get the word out to restaurant chain owners and franchises that might not read their mail until the end of the week.

Gordon and Luis from Sesame Street also make an appearance in other PSAs, along with celebrities Marc Anthony, Amy Ryan and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. There’s also some good PSA winners from a recent video contest to round out the page.